In steel erection projects, for example road construction and bridgebuilding, steel studs are typically manually placed onto the surfaces of steel beams into ceramic ferrules, and then are welded in place onto the beam. Conventional, manual techniques for feeding and aligning both studs and ferrules into collets are well known in the art and are disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,510. This is a slow and arduous process that requires the worker to repeatedly bend over in order to first place the stud within a pre-positioned ferrule over a ground welding site on the beam, and then to weld the stud into place on the beam. The slow speed of this process increases construction time and costs, and leads to frequent worker injuries.
There is a need for improved welding systems that overcome these and other known drawbacks in the prior art.